Face of the Enemy (episode)
Troi is captured and forced to masquerade as a Romulan intelligence officer in a plot to aid the defection of several high-ranking Romulan officials. Summary Deanna Troi slowly awakens, and is shocked to discover she has been surgically altered to appear Romulan. She doesn't know why. A real Romulan, Subcommander N'Vek, suddenly enters, and begins giving her instructions. He explains she is on a Romulan warbird, but refuses to answer any more of her questions because there is no time. He insists that she must act as Major Rakal of the Tal Shiar, and she must tell the captain of this vessel, Commander Toreth, to alter course to the Kaleb sector. When she refuses to comply with his instructions and demands answers, he simply explains her best chance of survival is to do what he says, since she is undercover. When Troi meets Toreth, Troi is at first slow to answer, and not very pushy, which makes the commander suspicious. The commander soon begins to get angry. This forces Troi also become forceful. Toreth backs down, and Troi maintains this harshness throughout the ordeal. :"Captain's Log, stardate 46519.1. We have arrived at Research Station 75 to take on a rather unique passenger, one whose homecoming will undoubtedly be difficult." A Human who had defected to the Romulan Empire is beamed aboard the , Ensign Stefan DeSeve. He is immediately arrested for treason and confined to quarters. He insists on speaking to the captain almost immediately. When Captain Jean-Luc Picard sees him, DeSeve explains that Ambassador Spock is performing some "cowboy diplomacy," and that he wants Picard to rendezvous with a freighter in the Kaleb sector, and return its cargo to the Federation. After the young man explains his reasons for returning, and Picard is willing to believe in his accuracy in delivering the message. He sets a course right away. Meanwhile, on the Romulan ship, N'Vek explains to Counselor Troi what is in the cargo containers: Vice-Proconsul M'ret, one of the highest level officials in the Romulan government, and his two top aides. N'Vek explains that he is part of Spock's underground, and is attempting to create a way for many dissidents to escape. The plan is to have this warbird rendezvous with a Corvallen freighter, where she and they will be taken to Federation space. She is there, instead of another Romulan, because if something goes wrong, a Starfleet officer is their only guarantee of success. In the meantime, Troi maintains her harsh Tal Shiar attitude. Over dinner, when Commander Toreth repeatedly attempts to flirt with notions of distaste and distrust of the intelligence service, she repeats her loyalty and service to the Romulan Empire, while critiquing the food. When they arrive at the freighter, Troi senses that the other captain is lying when he says the cargo will be delivered. When she quietly informs N'Vek of this fact, he destroys the ship without orders. Toreth is furious. When asked for an explanation, N'Vek explains that Major Rakal ordered him to open fire. When pressed for an explanation, Troi does once again the only thing she can do: she threatens Toreth to justify her actions. She has the commander cloak and wait. Meanwhile, the Enterprise arrives at the coordinates specified to find no ship, or any within three light years. Picard demands an explanation from DeSeve, who cannot provide one, but reiterates his certainty in his accuracy. He does add, however, that the freighter is old, and its speed and range is limited. Back on the Romulan ship, Troi engages in a heated argument with N'Vek. He justifies his actions by saying there was no alternative, and a lot of people have already died for this mission. He instructs her to go to the Federation outpost on Draken IV and use her Federation access codes to bypass the gravitic sensor net. When she explains this to Toreth, the commander is quite skeptical, and believes it as tactically unsound. Troi does the only thing she can, and pulls rank once again. Her plan will be acted upon. Before they can go to warp, however, the Enterprise appears in the area. Troi decides to change the plan and have the ship hold position. Toreth ignores her, and slowly begins to maneuver out of the debris field to avoid detection. Troi allows this to happen. The Enterprise, meanwhile, has been examining the debris. It is the remains of a freighter, one like they were supposed to meet. Commander Data's analysis concludes the freighter was destroyed by Romulan weapons within the last three hours. On the Romulan vessel, Troi is talking strategy with N'Vek. She wants to know if there is a way to allow the Enterprise to track them. N'Vek says that if there were, he wouldn't do it, because he wants to get them to a Federation base. Using more than the forcefulness of the major, furious for what he did to her, she shouts that they will now follow her plans, or she will pull rank and get him ejected into space for being a traitor. He then suggests there is a way, and has the ship's engineer misalign one of the nullifier cores. Sure enough, the Enterprise begins to pick up a moving, magnetic distortion off their port side, which reappears and disappears. DeSeve believes that it could be a Romulan ship based on his understanding of their cloaking technology. Picard has the Enterprise head for the distortion. Toreth notices their movements, and isn't sure of their intent. She then orders a course directly under their hull; if they move, then they are detectable, and she will attack. Picard and DeSeve are baffled by this behavior, but conclude that they should move. When she sees that, Commander Toreth gives the order to drop cloak and fire. After an immediate tactical analysis, Troi explains that such an attack would be foolish. The commander stands up for her abilities, and forces Troi to order her removal from the bridge. Troi explains to the otherwise loyal junior officers that their families, as well as they, will bear the punishment of refusing to follow her orders, and takes command. Toreth steps down, and N'Vek is the first to take the major's orders. Troi suggests that they use discretion instead of a bold attack. She explains that she will offer a diplomatic solution, and destroy them after their shields are down. When the ship appears, and Troi addresses Picard on the viewscreen, the bridge crew restrains their surprise. Once she explains the attack in basic terms, she then suggests that she be beamed over to the Enterprise to discuss the matter. The Enterprise drops shields, and when N'Vek fires, he encodes a transporter beam inside it, and beams M'ret and his aides to the bridge. Toreth then realizes, when the transporter beam is detected and tracked to the cargo bay, that the major is not who she appears to be. N'Vek threatens her, and the loyal Romulan pilot vaporizes him. As the warbird sets a course for Romulus, they drop shields and cloak the ship. Just in time, the Enterprise beams Troi aboard. After Doctor Beverly Crusher undoes her cosmetic surgery, Troi is glad to be back, but cites N'Vek as the hero, who sacrificed himself to save her. Memorable Quotes "I've smelled better viinerine on prison ships." : - Troi "How did the Tal Shiar protect the Empire by dragging my father from our home in the middle of the night?" "Clearly, your father was a traitor." : - Toreth and Troi "People blame the military for the wars we are asked to fight." : - Toreth Background * Scott MacDonald makes his second Star Trek appearance in this episode. * In this episode it is revealed that Romulan cloaking devices, when operational, leave standard defensive shields off-line. Before, it was only known that a cloaked vessel could not fire its offensive weaponry. * Worf has his hair changed to long hair tied in a pony tail. It remains so throughout the rest of the series and movies. * This is the first episode in which Romulan officers wear insignia on their uniform collars. Links and References Guest Stars *Scott MacDonald as Subcommander N'Vek *Carolyn Seymour as Commander Toreth *Barry Lynch as Stefan DeSeve *Robertson Dean as the Romulan pilot *Dennis Cockrum as the Corvallen freighter captain *Pamela Winslow as Ensign McKnight Uncredited Co-Stars *Guy Vardaman as a Romulan guard *Cameron as Ensign Kellogg *John Tempoya as an operations division crewman **Unknown actor as M'ret **Unknown actress as M'ret's aide #1 **Unknown actor as M'ret's aide #2 **Unknown actress as Transporter Ensign References ''Antares''-class; antiproton; artificial quantum singularity; Bokara VI; class-7 vessel; cloaking device; Corvallen; Corvallen freighter; court martial; ''D'deridex''-class; disruptor; Draken IV; gravitic sensor net; Kaleb sector; ''Khazara'', IRW; Konsab; M'ret; neuropsychology; nullifier core; Rakal (Major); Research Station 75; Romulan; Romulan Intelligence Academy; Romulan Senate; Romulan underground movement; Sotarek Citation; Spock; stasis; tachyon detection grid; tachyon scan; Tal Shiar; vice-proconsul; viinerine; vorcha'ak; warbird |next= }} Category:TNG episodes de:Das Gesicht des Feindes es:Face of the Enemy nl:Face of the Enemy